By Justin D. Anderson
Charleston Daily Mail (West Virginia)
Chuck Runyon, a top state transportation official, says an East Bank volunteer firefighter in charge of the scene of a fatal wreck on the West Virginia Turnpike last week used bad judgment and exacerbated an already lengthy traffic gridlock.
But the firefighter, Assistant Chief James Stamper, said Runyon was pressuring him to open northbound lanes hours before hazardous materials experts had finished their job.
A tractor-trailer overturned near the Chelyan exit at 2:05 p.m. Wednesday, spilling chemicals over the southbound lanes and killing one of the drivers — Gary Shrout, 69, of Leesburg, Ohio.
Traffic was halted in both directions until officials could determine whether or not the chemicals that had spilled were hazardous.
Officials with the Parkways Authority estimate that northbound traffic was backed up for about 10 hours and southbound for about 15 hours.
Runyon, executive assistant to Transportation Secretary Paul Mattox, was on the scene and contends officials had determined by about 8 p.m. that the chemicals were not dangerous. Still, Stamper refused to open the northbound lanes to get the traffic moving, Runyon said.
One northbound lane near the shoulder was finally opened at 11:25 p.m. — about the time East Bank firefighters cleared the scene.
According to state law, in situations where there is a fire, entrapment or hazardous materials situation, the chief or designee of the lead fire department at the scene is in charge. In this case, that was Stamper.
Runyon said Stamper refused to open the northbound lanes earlier because he feared for the safety of his firefighters and others who would be cleaning up the spill in the southbound lanes. Runyon said Stamper feared a tractor-trailer could jump over the median wall.
"We explained to him that we work behind the barrier every day," Runyon said. "I just don't think he thought properly."
Stamper has a different recollection of what happened. He said officials didn't finally determine that there was no hazardous materials danger until about 10:30 p.m.
Stamper added that decontamination equipment had been set up in the northbound lanes and it would have been a waste of time to tear it down and set it up again in the southbound lanes just so traffic could move.
"His main priority that night was worrying about the road being opened up," Stamper said of Runyon. "Not why it was taking so long to get the road opened."
Stamper disputed Runyon's claim that officials had deemed by 8 p.m. that the chemicals were not hazardous.
"At 8 p.m., they were still trying to find the last bit of (chemicals) that was on the truck," Stamper said.
Dale Petry, Kanawha County's emergency services director, also was on the scene.
He, like Runyon, recalled that Stamper's concern for the safety of the clean-up crews played into his decision to keep the northbound lanes shut down.
"East Bank had their reasons to keep the interstate shut down," Petry said. "Because, in (Stamper's) opinion, it was unsafe... It's a decision that has to be made sometimes. Unfortunately, as much traffic that's on that Turnpike, if you stop it for a couple of hours, it's going to be backed up."
Petry added, "By no means am I saying that (Stamper) was wrong."
Greg Barr, director of the Parkways Authority, declined to comment on the disagreement until officials meet today to review the incident. Gov. Joe Manchin has ordered a complete assessment of the prolonged tie-up to see how to avoid the same situation in the future.
Barr did say that Parkways did everything it was expected to do — divert traffic and bring in materials and equipment to deal with the wreck and spill.
Barr said northbound traffic that had backed up didn't totally disperse until about 2:20 a.m. Thursday.
"Part of that was our crews and the State Police waking up truckers," Barr said.
Parkways was able to open one southbound lane at around 5:19 a.m. Thursday as crews continued to clean up the chemical spill.
Copyright 2008, Charleston Daily Mail (West Virginia)
